Cut and Run 7 - Touch and Geaux

asked Ty.
    “No. But I’m in a room with some of the smartest, most devious assholes I’ve ever known. If we can’t slither our way out of this, then we don’t deserve our titles.” Ty nodded at Owen and Digger, then at Nick. Nick smiled.
    Liam began to sit up, but Ty put a foot on his shoulder and shoved him back to the floor. A ghost of a smile crossed Zane’s lips.
    “Right now we have two enemies, after two different things, who’ve joined forces,” Liam rasped. He shoved at Ty’s foot. “We need to pit them against one another. Will you get off me!”
    Ty stepped away, smirking at Liam as he pushed himself off the floor and brushed himself off.
    Owen stood from where he’d been lounging on the couch. “What if we give them what they want?”
    Ty sat down hard in the chair Liam had vacated, across the table from Zane. “I’d rather not die in this plan.”
    Owen held up a hand. “They think you’re Tyler Beaumont, right? Ex-military, wandering performer, hired henchman. CI important enough for the FBI to try to save.” He shrugged. “Who’s to say you weren’t hired to off someone?”
    Ty cut his eyes toward Nick, not yet willing to say he wasn’t following but obviously not following any more than Nick was. Nick shrugged.
    “And Garrett,” Owen continued, “he could be a dirty Fed, still be part of the cartel crowd.”
    Ty and Zane shared a look over the table. Both men still seemed confused.
    Digger leaned over and put both hands on his head. “Johns, I swear to baby Jesus, if you don’t start making sense, I’m gonna kick you.”
    “Listen,” Owen insisted. “Bell contacts the cartel, tells them Garrett, or whatever name you used, wants a meet with them. Follow?”
    The room was silent.
    “Oh my God!”
    “Can you . . . draw it in a chart or something?” Nick asked.
    “Look, Garrett’s a dirty Fed. Liam’s a hired gun. They’re both after Ty, who is a dirty rat.”
    “Hey!”
    Owen flopped his hands. “Well, you were!”
    “Granted, but I am no longer after Ty,” Liam added. “Turned the job down, remember?”
    “Details. Garrett has Grady, wants to trade him in for safe passage to Miami, and Bell tells the cartel.”
    “Why didn’t you just say that the first time?” Liam grumbled.
    “I don’t want safe passage to Miami,” Zane said.
    “He’s not being literal, Garrett, Jesus Christ,” Ty snapped.
    “I’m sorry, Grady, I have a hard time thinking like an asshole!”
    “He means getting back in good with the cartel. Or getting out clean, what the fuck ever. Would your cover still fly with them? Could you go in as a compromised agent?”
    “Yeah,” Zane said, nodding slowly. “I was there two years ago. The story was I got out of prison. When they pulled me, though, I just disappeared.”
    Ty tapped the table. “That was right around the same time de la Vega was killed.”
    “You would know,” Zane mumbled.
    “It’s possible he found out you were a Fed, turned you, and gave you a job to do in the Bureau. You left to do it right before he was offed, and ever since, you’ve been looking for the man who killed him. Will that work?”
    Zane stared at Ty for several seconds before nodding. “They’ll be suspicious. Going in and admitting I’m a Fed, that . . . that might actually work. Yeah. Yeah, I can work with that.”
    “So Zane calls up the cartel boys,” Nick drawled, “tells them he’s their long lost buddy, and he’s got the man who killed big papi?”
    Digger made a clicking sound with his tongue. “So far, all I’m seeing is Garrett handing Grady over to the people who already want him dead and telling them more reasons why he should be dead.”
    “But they’re not the only people who want him dead,” Owen said.
    “You want to play a fiddle game where Ty is the fiddle?” Liam asked.
    “Fuck no.” Ty shook his head. “The fiddle dies.”
    “I’m good with it,” Liam said.
    “The fiddle is usually an object,” Digger said. “What the fuck kind of messed up fiddle game you been playing?”
    “No, no,” Owen said quickly. “We make the cartel believe Ty is the one they want, not Zane. And then we call up Papa Gaudet.”
    “Who obviously wants to talk to me before killing me,” Ty added.
    “Right. And we tell him when and where the cartel plans to acquire and kill Ty.”
    “So you’ve, in theory, pitted Gaudet against the cartel.” Nick winced. “That’s banking on Gaudet still wanting information from Ty badly